pringles thanksgiving bitchfest 2019
Well, I can’t say I’m surprised.
For those of you not in the know, today at 12 PM EST, Pringles was set to launch their Turducken flavored, limited edition Thanksgiving pack. Last year the company did a similar exclusive and you can still find those sets boppin’ around on eBay to the tune of $80+. I know it may be a silly thing to be annoyed about (they are JUST chips after all) but this failed launch is really part of a bigger, more widespread issue that we as consumers allow to continue and even encourage. Let me explain.
Before I go any further, let me start by saying that we here at DemBoys were unable to get our hands on even ONE pack of these. I know what you’re thinking: these were limited. They were a special edition. We were never promised anything, and you’re absolutely right for thinking that maybe we’re overreacting a bit. The problem here though is not that we were too late, or that we didn’t have our credit cards ready when our time came. The problem that three of us faced today was completely beyond our control.
Kellogg’s was unprepared for a launch that they knew was going to be massive.
Right off the bat, we all knew something was wrong when the website wouldn’t load at 11:58 AM, but we gave kelloggstore.com the benefit of the doubt. We were technically early and after all, maybe they took the site offline until launch time, right? Wrong. 12:00 came and went, 12:15, 12:45, and all we were able to load sporadically was an image of the Turducken Pringles that said “coming soon”. BOY that “coming soon” really stung, because it indicated a real lack of foresight for this release. The company must have known how big of a deal this Limited Edition was going to be based off of last year, yet they seemingly did nothing to prepare on their end for the increases in website traffic. Instead of a page telling us that the Pringles had sold out, the consumers were kept in the dark for upwards of TWO HOURS.
Again, I know that it seems like we’re bitching about minutiae here and in the grand scheme of things I guess we are. But when we compare what happened over on the Kellogg’s site to another exclusive launch that began today, we can see the way things like this are SUPPOSED to be handled. I’m of course talking about McDonald’s 40th anniversary Happy Meal toys that are only going to be around for a few days. Apparently McDonalds has learned their lesson after they botched the limited Szechuan Sauce release a while back. Our good buddy Optimus Grime was able to walk right into his local Mickey D’s and pick up all of the 17 toys being offered with no issue, and that’s really what should have happened at kelloggstore.com as well.
Big companies putting out extremely limited edition goodies for fans to snatch up is a good thing, I’m not saying that’s the problem here. It can be a really fulfilling opportunity for consumers to stake out their spot in line and buy something they thought they’d never get to own in a million years. There’s just a right way and a wrong way of doing it, and unfortunately the Pringles offering today was very much the wrong way. If they’re going to release say 250,000 of an item, they should be prepared for their site to take probably about 100x that amount of traffic for the time of the launch.
This is where we as consumers need to start speaking with our wallets. The next time a big release from Kelloggs is talked about, don’t buy into it. Don’t go to their website, don’t hype up the release to all your friends, simply let it fade away into obscurity. The more we do this, the clearer the message will be to these big companies that they need to be prepared and treat their customers who are willing to shill out $16 (!) for chips a bit better.
Oh yeah, and don’t buy these Turducken chips from an eBay poacher either – I know it’s tempting to be able to say you’ve tried it when nobody else has, but those guys are assholes who ruin limited releases for collectors and fans and they need to be taken down a peg or two and have that stream of income cut off! I suppose that’s really the whole point to all of this, we as consumers should probably start exercising financial discipline to discourage shitty practices and behavior.
